White Flag
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day six hundred and seventy: After spending the better part of the year at odds, Santana makes peace with Artie.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 31st cycle. Now cycle 32!_

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><p><strong>Hear that little bird twitter!<strong> _Been thinking about doing this for a couple days, then this morning decided to just go for it. If you go there, find 'gleekathon' and there I'll be. There's also a video explaining everything... Yep... ;) Check it out!_

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><p><strong>"White Flag"<br>Santana, Artie, Brittany **

They were never going to be best friends. That ship had sailed… so many times over. But then something changed, started to change… She changed. She started to see herself differently, and for that she began reconsidering things… one of those was Artie Abrams.

There had been a time, somewhere in between, where they had been okay. There was the 'before'… before Glee Club. It was pretty clear cut: she was a Cheerio, popular, and he was the geek in the chair… By all means their paths would never have crossed, but then they did, when she joined Glee Club. Even then, at first all she saw about that place was a temporary reality. Quinn would go after her lanky lover, they'd help the coach bring the club down, and it would be over. But then, of course, it hadn't stayed that way.

When she'd started liking Glee Club, suddenly they all started being people to her. They still bugged her a lot of the time, but she could get past it… with some more than others. Artie, for a while, had been a 'some more than others' guy. Then he crossed the line… it wasn't his fault, not really. It was Brittany who'd gone after him – to spite her – and not the other way around, but that wasn't going to matter to her. She wouldn't blame Brittany, not now – when part of her felt like she'd pushed her into his arms – not ever, so who else would she blame?

Now after having moved from being no one to her, to being a sort of friend, he'd fallen into enemy status. All she wanted was for him to be out of the equation and no longer in the way for her and Brittany to get back on their feet. This meant both trying to break them up – which became kind of pointless after a while – and looking out for her if he hurt her.

She'd always be there, picking up the pieces; that would never change. She trusted Brittany, maybe more than Brittany trusted her, and this girl was high on trust. That was what it came down to: trust, and love, and no conditions in between.

As days had gone by, weeks gone by, she understood this more and more now. And the further she got, that's when her mind started to change. It took time, but it was coming together. And then there was the break up.

She saw her, standing there in the hall, and she was broken. So she had done all she could, to console her, to make her smile again… and resist the urge to find Artie and aim him at a nice downward slope, give him a kick off…

After that she could have really just given up on him, abandoned the idea that he could be anything but a thorn in her side. But her ideas were still settling, and being put up against everything that not only she went through but what they all went through… Quinn, and Kurt, the whole club… even Rachel, though she'd never say that to her face… Until finally…

When they returned to McKinley after Nationals, even if she still had some rage about the loss, she was thinking about other things, about what her life was going to be now. She still had everything to deal with when it came to her secrets, her feelings, but right then – there what she wanted was to release some of this negativity wrapped around her.

She still had Brittany. How she had her, in what way, that was still left to be seen, but she hadn't lost her… couldn't happen… So why keep blaming him? Maybe it was time for a change.

It was strange what it did to your vision of things, when you changed… even a little thing… And when she walked into the Glee room that day, she saw Artie. She saw how the moment he saw her come in, for one split second it was as though he was bracing himself for whatever she'd do or say on that day. She sighed, walking up to him. The others that had arrived, they were still all happy, even if they'd lost… Then they could talk and no one would care.

"Hey…" she started, hoping to sound as non-threatening as she could. He looked at her, possibly catching on to this though he remained apprehensive. "Look, I know you and I have had some… disagreements…"

"That's what we're calling it?" he asked.

"We are, if I'm going to say what I'm trying to say," the tone flared up, and he raised his hand as though to say 'as you wish.' She relaxed. "I can't apologize, not completely, " she shook her head. "Just like I can't tell you everything, but I think you understand a lot more about this than a lot of them do… and maybe that was part of it," she shrugged, looked back to him. "But I wanted to say that it's done," she gave something between nodding and raising her shoulders. "I can't promise I might not relapse now and then, but I'm making a change." He was still looking at her. He still looked a bit unsure, but he was coming around.

"Thanks…" he told her.

"Yeah," she lowered her head for a second. "Oh, and… you don't need to tell her about…" she started, but he indicated for her to turn around. She knew what she'd find, but still she was careful. She didn't know how long Brittany had been standing there, but judging by the smile on her face she must have heard something. And by the time Mr. Schuester joined them, Santana felt more at peace than she had in so long, knowing there were some changes she could make happen.

THE END

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><p><strong>AN: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
><strong>**In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
><strong>******always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!******


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